With this thread, I'm hoping to provide some info as regularly as possible on fishing activites taking place in Maputo bay and surroundings.

Yesterday the first compo of the year was organized by Clube Maritimo. As I'm away, I would like to ask peterblace to give us a brief on what happened!? I know that a marlin was released, several dorries were landed and a large GT.

Tales from Maputo onboard…Oba Obawhere did I read something similar to this??

2011 competition from Clube Maritimo started yesterdayThis year competition will be divided in 6 stages…4 in the Summer/Autumn time…2 in the Spring/Summer time

Clube Maritimo and the sponsors decided to change the rules regarding prize giving (from gear to cash) which probably attracted a lot more boats to the competition…21 in total which is a good number for our reality

meeting time was at 4:30am at the club to start organizing the boat as start was at 5:30am…we had 2 first timers with us, the marine engines master in Maputo, the skipper and myself (a 4th timer with a sailfish, a yellowfin kingfish and a dorado in the CV..beginners luck)

we launched at 5:00 and waited for departure just opposite Clube Maritimo

sea was calm in the Maputo Bay (for this time weather man guessed right), 30º temperature and nearly no wind

at 5:30 the competition began…all boats full throtle towards deep bluemy skipper decided to go to Jeremias (an area North of Inhaca Island)

we got to there 1h later and started trollingfirst signs of sea sickness came out when one of the first times byte a sandwichat cruising speed there was no problem for the first timers…but at trolling speed they were both greenish grey in color…but in the end they hold it well

we were targeting…whatever we could land…but in general in competitions my skipper only target billfish

around 7:00am we heard on the radio that "Mon Ami" lost a Marlin

we had a few strikes on a rapala type of lure (don't ask me names…I'm still a newby in this kind of things) but the fishes got awaywe then thought that maybe a small fish was there, took it out and confirmed that nothing was there…we replaced this rapala for another lure and kept trolling towards the 200mts

the objective was to head North when out at the 200mts towards the area called Poço (known for producing a lot of fish)

the radios were quite quiet (not usual here as all skippers tend to do when they are out fishing…a lot of jokes, some music every now and then and a lot of catch reports)…some of the skippers were asking about bait fish activity and catches but all over the place no one had anything to report

around 10:00 we had a strike that took a few 100/150 meters of line…and got away…we didn't see what it was…we circled around and around to check for some more but nothing on…so we kept our rota towards Poço

when at Poço wind dropped completely and sea was flat as I wish my tummy should be…and water was clear as…water!!!

we trolled for a while there, saw most of the fleet in the area…most of them trolling but also some were jigging…

at one moment Richard's "Number 1" was crossing our path…out of the blue and just in front of us we saw a couta jumping and attacking one of his lures…it was one of his catchesit was a beautiful moment!!

we decided to head back to Jeremias areawhen we got there we started to see a lot of activity in the water…birds and shipjack jumping all overwe then start to see some dorados swimming at the surface…shoals of 6 to 10 around our boatI've asked the skipper permission to go to the front deck with my light spinning rod (Daiwa Exceler 8ft with a Exceler 4000E with 20lbs braid to try my luck….either at the skipjack or at the dorados)I cast a few times but as the skipper did not reduce speed it was really hard for me to cast and retrieve…so I quit!!!

do you think I could have any chance if we reduce speed or even stopped????I've used one of Rolfe's lures…the Tackle House Flitz 24

around 12:30 we heard on the radio that "Four Play" released a Marlin

most of the fleet headed towards Jeremias as they all heard on the birds and fish activity in the area…

we decided to head towards Ilha dos Portugueses for a nice swim at the beach…right next to the 2000 ish people from the cruise ship that was anchored next door

we arrived at Clube Maritimo around 15h and I then waited for the other competitors to arrive and check about their catchesmost of the boats blanked but from what I saw it was a dorado day for a lot of them…at least for the lucky ones that fish anything

in the end only 12 boats scored something

1st prize went to Four Play with a marlin release2nd prize went to Number 1 with a 8kg dorado, a 10kg couta and a 23kg GT (caught on a Tiagra 50…was landed in a few minutes)

Number 1 also won the bigger fish prize with the GT

a lot of small tuna's were landed, some dorado, a few couta and a couple of kingfish

Launched today at 10:30 on a family trip to Xefina island (5 nm NNE of Maputo).... lovely day with water temp 27.7o C and flat seas... a few boats launched from the club and at least one went to fish 3M for bottoms... waiting for the reports...

Sorry shag, I was dead yesterday... Couldn't even think right... Will post a proper report but not much happening... Only one sail was released yesterday (from a boat fishing out of the comp) and generally the fishing was poor...

Largest fish was a YFT of 15.8 kg... Richard's Number 1 won the comp with 6 species (mostly jigging) and a few YFT.